Fellowship of Fantasy: Reader Reviews

Rating: PG-13Reason for choice of rating:There's no real explicit or graphic violence though violence (mainly magical) is mentioned and there are epic magical battles. There's also quite a bit of death, including a main character death, though they're not described in detail. Slight allusion to sex, nothing described, a bit of swearing, so this one's probably pretty safe for teens and up. (I.e. nothing that would shock a supposedly innocent 13-YO. I know 13YOs are not innocent. Just saying.)

The Review:2015 finds former speedcaster champion Jaret King leading a joint mage & wizard law enforcement team in Shanghai. Sent to investigate the disappearance of a local wizard, a fairly innocuous-sounding missing persons case soon devolves into a hunt for the most deadly magical terrorist in history.

Storm in Shanghai is a story about a white American in China, written by a white American in China. Bush offers you snippets of life in China's biggest city, quick offerings of cultural exchanges, and descriptions of the locale, in the midst of a witch hunt (wizard hunt?) led by a white man with a team of locals. It's an interesting balance he's managed to walk, which should satisfy even the most politically correct of the cultural critics out there (I think. There were several jibes, but nothing I wouldn't say to a fellow Asian. lol).

The novel jumps between several main timelines: the terrorist attacks in 1990, the rise of wizardry in the early 11th century and present day events in 2015. This makes the beginning of the story feel long and rather clunky, making it a little difficult to get into immediately but it's worth it. By the time everything weaves together into one horrific disaster somewhere in the middle of the book, you can't help but feel invested in all that has happened so far and hope for a solution that's not painful or nasty, and certainly please, no more deaths. (Case in point: I read the first maybe 30% sporadically over the span of 5 days, picked it up again today thinking I'd read for short while before doing something else, and then find myself finishing the whole thing because... darn it, NO. WHY DID YOU DO IT JARET.)

Bush's writing style is pretty straight-forward and action-driven, so don't expect anything poetically fancy or pointlessly beautiful. His strength is in the plot, action and characterisations, even of the villain. There's a nice complexity to his creation of mage-wizard relations and tensions, making it believable.

Rating: PGReason for choice of rating: Contains themes of slavery and child abuse.

The Review:The Sorceror's Bane is an enthralling, action-packed read. And I use enthral in both senses of the word. This first novel in a planned series of seven books follows young Prince Rayne through his kidnapping and enslavement at six and his journey to becoming a master assassin.

The fact that I read this in one sitting says a lot. And no, this isn't a quick 2-hour light read. It was one of those sprawling life epics--okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration--that take up like 5 or so hours of your time. I legit started reading during late dinner at 9 pm (duh, because you need to read something while you eat alone, right?) and finished at almost 3 am, because I am an idiot that way.

Good versus Evil, Light versus DarkAt its core, The Sorceror's Bane is a sword and sorcery tale of Good versus Evil. In the vein of fantasy epics such as Eddings' Belgariad and Gemmell's Legend, Wachter utilises prophecies and faith to spur the actions of her heroes, even when a subconscious action on their part.

The Sorceror's Bane holds echoes of Wachter's Christian faith. There is a single god known as the One that rules over this universe, represented by the light. There is an evil, or a darkness, that opposes the One and his believers, embodied by Sigmund. There are seven scrolls, or prophecies, to each of the seven worlds in Ochen, reminiscent of the words of the Lord to the seven churches in the book of Revelations.

Unexpectedly hopefulWachter is masterful at pulling at your heartstrings. Just as soon as you see a glimmer of light for our poor young protagonist, just as soon as you think things will not get worse, Wachter breaks your heart as Sigmund and his evil cohorts find new ways to break Rayne's spirit over and over again. Yet threaded subtly through all this darkness, Wachter manages to always leave the reader with a glimmer of hope--whether via Rayne himself or through his friends Anne and Warren--reminding you that although evil abounds, the One is in control.

I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of this series and I hope it doesn't take too long to come out!

Books and movies you would compare this to: Belgariad series (David Eddings)

The Review:Sometimes what comes after The End isn't necessarily happily ever after. That's the case with Bensin and his sister, who escape a life of slavery only to discover freedom has its own hardships. Also, Coach Steene goes from a free man to a slave, and while the transition is difficult, it gives his character a real chance to shine. What I loved most about this book was the growing relationship between Steene and his owner. This is a great book of learning kindness, humility, and patience. Highly recommended.

Ideal Audience:Teens and adults, but especially boys because of the male leads. Did you have a favorite character or least favorite character?Steene is my favorite.

The Review:AUGH! But ... oh ... squee!!! Nooo ... ugh! OOH, yeah, yay! Hmm... Awww ...FEELZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZI tried to post that on Amazon, but the rejected it because it apparently lacked coherent information, so I'll try to do better here. So here we go ...I loved the first two books in this series. They both made my top 10 list for 2017. This one, I found, took a little longer to get into. There wasn't as much snark. There was a little bit, but the tone was a little quieter, a little slower, a little less joke a minute and more joke every couple of pages. Also, it was a time travel story, made clear from the get go, and time travel stories have that annoying habit of "erasing" all the consequences at the end therefore making me a little less invested in the sakes. It was about the 50% mark where things that I can't get into because of spoilers gave this the highest stake level of any of the book so far and dang ... from that point on, it is mad feelz. Seriously. There's a really sweet moment we've been waiting for three books for ... then a really bittersweet ending ... and things just get more complicated.Also, I want more dragon. Please? Anyway, so it became my favorite of the series so far from about the 50% mark on and I highly recommend it.

Ideal Audience:Lovers of time travel, snark, twists, and light romance

Books and movies you would compare this to:Doctor Who, Psych, Grimm (light), The Librarians, Warehouse 13

Did you have a favorite character or least favorite character?Crispin, Malcom, also what is with this author and the letter M? (Molly, Malcolm, Melody, Matteo... don't think I didn't notice)

Rating: PGReason for choice of rating: Some violence, but mostly because of the descriptions of captivity/wounds that might be a little too much for really sensitive readers.

The Review:I really enjoyed the style of this. The way it takes the shifting nature of a dreamscape and just runs with it is probably the strongest element of this book. I can see if you aren't the sort of person who has vivid dreams or if you don't remember your dreams, that could come across as a little confusing, but as is, it comes across as weirdly realistic considering the material/setting. The story has a nice mix of magic and mystery and involves a lot of different faerie creatures. There's some very creative magic and ways that the magic has to be used or thwarted, which kept me entertained, and I liked the two main characters (the King who is not really all there for most of the book and the MC, Claire, who is dealing with him and understandably frustrated.).A few small quibbles I had didn't really take away from the book, but they befuddled me enough to be mentioned: towards the end of the book there is a lot of talk about how far the main character has come and how selfish she used to be ... I never really got that she was all that bad. Yes, she did grow, but the person she was at the beginning of the book seemed to be reacting like most normal humans would be in her situation. Every time someone talked about how "selfish" she used to be, I didn't quite get it. Maybe because I'm a little more tolerant of human frailty than the average reader? I mean, if a book gives me a whiny, selfish, unlikable protagonist, I will totally stop reading, so I don't think I'm that accepting of it, but yeah, to me Claire was never really that bad of person.For instance, at the beginning she's a sixteen-year-old girl who comes home to an empty house on her birthday and finds her parents have not only left her alone for a business dinner on her birthday (which is uncool) and they also only left her with frozen meatloaf to microwave (which she dislikes. I mean, come on, if you really can't be there for a kid on her birthday, at least leave her twenty bucks to order pizza and maybe a cupcake?), but towards the end we're supposed to feel that Claire has grown away from her selfishness to learn to appreciate her family more, not the other way around? Which leads to my second quibble: this would've been a better book if the family didn't exist. It's a minor quibble because they are barely in the story at all, but it is very rare that I get through a book and think, "This would've been more interesting if the MC were an orphan," and this one did that. The family isn't given enough time on the page for us to be interested in them (which I liked because I wanted to focus on Claire, the King, and cool fairy magic), but because they exist we get an extra layer of denouement where the character has to deal with the fact that they do exist before we can get to the real ending. Though in the end, that was only like a chapter. Ideal Audience:Dreamers. People who enjoy interesting magic.

Books and movies you would compare this to:Labyrinth is the obvious one, but there's a touch of Wonderland in it.

The Review:What a beautiful young adult fantasy novel! The medieval setting was not atypical; however, it had plenty of unique characteristics to set it apart. Things likes the lizard-like Horde, and one of the main characters being a pacifist are not something you run across in your every day fantasy novel. I enjoyed the gentle love story between the two main characters, and the growth both showed through trial and hardship. In all, this is a lovely novel, highly recommended for teens on up. Mom approved!

Ideal Audience:12+. I think boys might like this, as it has a male MC. Girls too, because of his love interest, the female mc.

Did you have a favorite character or least favorite character?Mercy. She grew a lot in strength through trial.

The Review:Meet Robin and Robert, royal twins who seem to be the victims of a tragic mistake. You see, when they were born, their fairy godmother mixed up their gifts. Princess Robin is quite handy with a sword, while Prince Robert spends his hours sewing marvelous tapestries. Their parents have been searching for a way to switch the twins’ gifts, and a way has finally been found! The twins must undertake a quest to find their fairy godmother and make the request themselves… that is… if they still want their gifts switched by the time they find her!

Sew is short, sweet, and a fairly quick read. The characters don’t always know exactly where they’re going and sometimes the plot meanders a bit, but the author is quick to point it out when this happens, which is highly entertaining. The twins are fun characters to spend time with and along the way they start to gather up quite a collection of fellow travelers – most of whom the reader will recognize from various fairy tales.

The story is well written, well-edited, and the only thing that took some getting used to was the way some of the characters use a sort of “Old English” way of speaking… which isn’t always correct or true to our own “Old English,” but then, Bookania isn’t exactly in our world, and Kendra is consistent with how she uses the dialect, so it worked for me.

While the end of the story does not come as a shock (it’s a fairy tale, the ending isn’t really supposed to be a shock), there are enough surprises to keep the reader interested, and more than enough truly fantastic puns that will keep you chuckling out loud as you read. The story wraps up nicely, without any pesky cliffhangers, but leaves itself open for a sequel.

The Review:Ayianna is a half-elven girl on the cusp of womanhood with dreams far above her station in life – wishing to sail on an elven ship and study the stars, impossible because she is not fully elven and because she is a woman. However, when her family moves away from the Elven city of Zurial and her father betroths her to Desmond, a handsome, human merchant who also has dreams above his position in life, it seems that Ayianna’s dreams have come to an end.

However, when her father is murdered in the forest before Ayianna’s eyes and he gives her a dagger and a cryptic message, Ayianna is unsure of how to proceed. When she discovers that her mother has disappeared and her brother has also been killed, she joins forces with an enigmatic and bitter young half-elf named Kael. Together they will travel with Desmond and his friend, Prince Vian as they search for answers as to why Ayianna’s father was killed. Along the way they will discover that something much deeper and more dangerous is in the wind.

It took two pages for this story to grab me and hold me spellbound. The writing style is beautiful and the characters step right off the pages and into your room. It is almost more like watching a theatrical play than reading a story. The descriptions made me feel like I was right there in the story, battling my way through dark forests and crossing parched deserts. I was rooting for Ayianna to realize her dreams…. and maybe grow a bit of a spine, but she can’t be faulted for not being great at wilderness exploration when she’s never done it before… I think that’s what I liked most about the story, that Ayianna is probably a pretty good depiction of how I would fare if I were thrust into an unanticipated adventure.

The pacing is very good, lots of excitement and adventure to keep your heart pounding as you read. There were a few places where I felt that the dialogue was a bit “off” – I’m not sure how to explain it… whenever a magical creature appeared, the way they spoke just didn’t feel “right” to me, like their voice wasn’t quite fleshed out. However, that only happens twice, and didn’t impact my enjoyment of the story.

I really loved this book and cannot wait to find out what happens to all of these characters.

The Review:The Tales of Goldstone Wood by Anne Elisabeth Stengl have quickly become some of my all-time favorite books in the past couple of years. Each book is better than the last, and Draven’s Light did not disappoint.

Though it is only a novella, Draven’s Light is a powerful story that explores the themes of courage and cowardice, love and self-sacrifice, standing up for what is right even when you’re the only one, darkness versus light, and many many more.

Like her other novella, Goddess Tithe, this story does not follow any of the main characters that we’ve come to know and love in the rest of the Goldstone Wood Saga, but rather explores some side-characters whose stories have been hinted at but not completely revealed. However, despite the lack of appearance by Eanrin or Imraldera, this little story packs a powerful punch. Written in the style of a story-within-a-story (one of my favorite story-telling devices), we meet a young girl who is tasked with taking water up to the two men who are building a large structure on the hill above her village. She is a bit scared of them, but she takes the water up and meets Akilun, who is carving a statue from a tree. When he notes her interest, he begins to tell her the story of the man whose likeness he is carving. The girl returns day after day, spellbound by the story of Draven, “The Coward.”

I could hardly bear to put this book down each night when I had reached the end of my allotted reading time. I sped through it swiftly, devouring the story from its pages. And in spite of the fact that I did guess the big surprise twist before it was revealed, that did not detract at all from my enjoyment of this wonderful story.

I would unreservedly recommend this and any other story in the Tales of Goldstone Wood. I anxiously hope for the day that it continues once more, but at least there are quite a few stories already written in this world to keep me entertained until then.

Ideal Audience:Ages 12 and up and anyone who enjoys adventure stories with a fairy-tale feel

Reviews by Readers

This blog features reviews of Fellowship of Fantasy titles submitted by readers.All reviews are the opinion of the reviewer, not necessarily of the Fellowship of the Fantasy's administrators or authors.Likewise content ratings applied to the books are at the discretion of that particular reader/reviewer. What may be a G for one may be PG for another.